Val-des-Bois is a town and municipality in the

Papineau Regional County Municipality Papineau is a regional county municipality in the Outaouais region of Quebec, Canada. The seat is Papineauville. Subdivisions There are 24 subdivisions within the RCM: Demographics Mother tongue from Canada 2016 Census In 2016, the popu ...

in the

Outaouais region Outaouais (, ; also commonly called The Outaouais) is a region of western Quebec, Canada. It includes the city of Gatineau, the municipality of Val-des-Monts and the Papineau region. Geographically, it is located on the north side of the Ottawa ...

of Quebec, Canada. The town is located on the eastern shores of the Du Lièvre River, north of

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...

. The main local economic activity depends on cottage tourism. The eastern half of the municipality is part of the

Papineau-Labelle Wildlife Reserve Papineau-Labelle Wildlife Reserve is a reserve in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, stretching across the Laurentides and Outaouais regions. The area was extensively logged in the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Although logging sti ...

Geography

As part of the

Laurentian Highlands The Laurentian Upland (or Laurentian Highlands) is a physiographic region which, when referred to as the "Laurentian Region" or the Grenville geological province, is recognized by Natural Resources Canada as one of five provinces of the larger ...

, its territory is dotted with lakes such Écho, de l'Argile, de l'Aqueduc, Vert, and Delphis. Echo Lake lies at an altitude of , while the surrounding relief rises to above sea level.

History

In 1873, the Township of Villeneuve was formed and named after Léonard-Vincent-Léon Villeneuve (1808-1873), member of

Society of Saint-Sulpice The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (french: Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice), abbreviated PSS also known as the Sulpicians is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, ...

, professor at the Petit Séminaire de Montréal (1838-1846), and pastor of

Oka Oka or OKA may refer to: Cars * Oka (automobile), a small car designed by AvtoVAZ and produced by ZMA and SeAZ * OKA 4wd, a large 4-wheel-drive vehicle made in Western Australia by OKA Military * 2B1 Oka, Soviet 420 mm self-propelled mor ...

from 1871 to 1873. In 1878, the local post office was named "Val-des-Bois". In 1883, the parish of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde was formed, and two years later, the United Township Municipality of Bowman-et-Villeneuve was established. In 1913, the townships separated, forming the Township Municipality of Bowman and the Township Municipality of Villeneuve. In 1929,

James Maclaren James Maclaren (March 19, 1818 – February 10, 1892) was an early settler and entrepreneur in western Quebec. Maclaren was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1818. He came to Richmond in Upper Canada with his family in 1822. The family then settl ...

began construction on a dam at the High Falls of the Lièvre River, displacing 156 families because of the rising waters. The majority of them where German settlers, the average amount the families received from the MacLaren Co. were, depending on the acreage, between $1000.-- to $2000 each. In 1958, Villeneuve was renamed to Val-des-Bois (French for "Valley of the Woods"), in reference to the beautiful forest which decorated the banks of the Lièvre River. On 23 June 2010 a 5.0 earthquake struck the region, with its

epicentre The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...

8 km from Val-des-Bois, which was the closest settlement.

Demographics

Mother tongue: * English as first language: 5.8% * French as first language: 91.9% * English and French as first language: 1.2% * Other as first language: 0.6%

Local government

List of former mayors: * Marcel Proulx (2001–2013) * Daniel Rochon (2013-2015) * Roland Montpetit (2015–present)

References

External links

{{authority control Incorporated places in Outaouais Municipalities in Quebec